Moontrap

Wacky, gory, and strangely humorous, "Moontrap" is one of those low budget films that forces its way into your heart. You just can't help but watch all of "Moontrap" once you accidentally run into it when channel surfing. Cheesy, and almost parodoxial of contemporary space action movies, "Moontrap" plays out into a required viewing B-movie for any one remotely interested in sci-fi. The plot is simple and standard issue: Walter Koenig is Col. Jason Grant (a.k.a., Pavel Chekov), a single-parent, astronaut burn-out who brings home an alien artifact. When NASA's computers find out that hostile alien life originated in the Moon's Prometheus Crater, Col. Grant is sent with a special team to eliminate an army of football-shaped alien eggs in stasis. One can pretty much guess what happens, and this basically makes "Moontrap" a space slasher film. All in all an incredibly stupid film, but well worth viewing. Very similar to "Virus" in some respects.

Space shuttle pilots Grant and Tanner discover a giant alien spacecraft between earth and moon. During an investigation, Grant finds a football-like thing and a corpse of a 14'000-year old astronaut! Back on Earth, in a NASA laboratory, the mentioned football-thing comes to life and combines itself with the corpse! The result can only be described as sort of a zombie-robot killing machine. It soon wreaks havoc on everything in his path, but Grant manages to destroy it. On moon, Grant and Tanner then discover the remainings of an ancient civilisation! Inside a giant palace, they find the female survivor of a war that took place there 14'000 years ago, and they have to fight against other zombie-robot creatures. They are not aware that they brought the final piece of technique (their landing capsule) to the moon that allows an army of robot-aliens (known as "Kaaliun") to finish their spacecraft in order to conquer the earth! They've been waiting for 14'000 years, and now Grant must find a way to stop them...

I really don't understand why everybody calls this a B-movie. Maybe it was not in theatres in the US, but it was in Europe. The special effects are great. Of course, they used models in several scenes, but it was good model work. The film has exactly the kind of wonderful and frightening (thanks to Joseph LoDuca's score) atmosphere that makes science-fiction movies great. And we have Walter Koenig and the incredible Bruce Campbell, what more could we ask for? Yes, the movie isn't perfect, but what movie is? Yes, it can't be taken seriously, like most other SF movies either, and yes, a higher budget would have added to the film's quality, but the budget can't have been that low either. This film is also NOT an "Alien" rip-off and NOT a "TERMINATOR" rip-off, nor a rip-off of any other movie. It's idea has absolutely nothing in common with the mentioned SF classics and is very original. Contrary, it has been ripped-off by John Bruno's "Virus" in 1999. If you really call yourself a fan of SF movies, you simply can't dislike "Moontrap".

I had me some fun revisiting MOONTRAP the other day. Had not seen it since my teen-days. A small but ambitious sci-fi/horror film about a race of robotic aliens hidden on the dark side of the moon, occupying themselves since ages with building a giant mother-ship - that thing was huge! - to invade earth and using human bodies for spare-parts (VIRUS with Jamie Lee Curtis, anyone?). A weird film altogether with a lot of great and some not-so-great special effects, including nifty looking miniatures. Starring none less than Walter Koenig (from the original STAR TREK series) and Bruce Campbell, who's acting his way very inappropriately through this film, like if he was convinced he was doing another EVIL DEAD film. Can't really call this a great film, with its pacing problems and illogical goings-on, but it was a blast seeing it again.

The good? Effects and props... and Koenig.

The bad? Everything else.

Apart from its value as 80s nostalgia, there's not much to see. The 1950s did this type of stuff much better.

It would have made a good TV movie, though.

This movie is what I call "Cheap Sci-Fi": a garage sale script, minimal special effects, and a great leap of faith to justify the story.

The premise is that there was a previous technological civilization on Earth (of course, this is never really explained), and they've left deadly robots on the moon. Not to be outdone, Earth sends a team of astronauts on a search and destroy mission.

Of course, the fact that it would be safer to leave them there, with the lunar gulf separating us is never mentioned! That would invalidate the whole movie, wouldn't it?

Jason & Ray (Koenig & Campbell) awaken a woman (Leigh Lombardi) in suspended animation whose role is wasted on a pointless T&A scene and the obligatory screams of fright. But don't despair, Koenig's real-life wife, Judy Levitt, shows up to save the plight of women on the screen by piloting a space shuttle, armed with missiles (did the producer have something against the peaceful uses of space?).

Most sad are the scientific errors which plague the script (be sure to click on the "goofs") and show that quick profits, not accuracy, were the driving force behind this flick.

Ironically enough, although the movie's a lost cause, the soundtrack by Joseph Lo Duca is superb, and a good premonition of his later work. Even more ironic is the fact that Lo Duca went on to write soundtracks for shows like Xena and Hercules, in which Bruce Campbell would have recurring roles.

Moontrap? Moon-trash would be a better title!